Metabonomics in pharmaceutical discovery and development

Metabonomics has emerged as a key technology in pharmaceutical discovery and development, evolving as the small molecule counterpart of transcriptomics and proteomics. In drug discovery laboratories, metabonomics aids in target identification, phenotyping, and the understanding of the biochemical basis of disease and toxicity. This review focuses on three areas where metabonomics is used in the industry: (1) analytical considerations, (2) chemometric and statistical concerns, and (3) biological aspects and applications.